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Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI).

Jenkins, Stephen P.

Marlier, Eric

Micklewright, John

Nolan, Brian

Piketty, Thomas

Radermacher, Walter J.

Smeeding, Timothy M.

Stern, Nicholas H.

Stiglitz, Joseph

Sutherland, Holly

Tony Atkinson and his Legacy2017In: The Review of Income and Wealth, ISSN 0034-6586, E-ISSN 1475-4991, Vol. 63, no 3, p. 411-444Article in journal (Refereed)

Abstract [en]

Tony Atkinson is universally celebrated for his outstanding contributions to the measurement and analysis of inequality, but he never saw the study of inequality as a separate branch of economics. He was an economist in the classical sense, rejecting any sub-field labelling of his interests and expertise, and he made contributions right across economics. His death on 1 January 2017 deprived the world of both an intellectual giant and a deeply committed public servant in the broadest sense of the term. This collective tribute highlights the range, depth and importance of Tony's enormous legacy, the product of almost fifty years’ work.

Is childcare a safety net for vulnerable children? This paper investigates the role of childcare for the health outcomes of children whose parents are unemployed. Exploiting time variation in childcare access resulting from a reform requiring Swedish municipalities to provide childcare also for children with unemployed parents, we estimate causal effects on health, as measured by register data on hospitalizations. We find that access to childcare reduced hospitalizations for infections among toddlers, especially among boys. Among children in preschool age access to childcare caused a temporary increase in hospitalization for infections the year they got access to childcare.

The 2000s were dominated by rising fuel prices and economic recession. Both had an impact on the structure of the trucking industry and how freight was moved. This paper examines how fuel prices shaped trucking industry’s network characteristics such as the average length of haul, average load, and capacity utilization. In particular, we show the effect of fuel price on average length of haul using 29 quarterly independent surveys from the Danish heavy goods vehicle (HGV) trip diary from 2004 to 2011. The results show that the average length of haul is sensitive to changes in fuel price: a DKK 1 (0.18$) increase in diesel price/liter leads to a 4 percent decrease in the average length of haul in the 2004-2007 period. This implies that firms improve transport efficiency by reducing the number of kilometers needed to transport a tonne of cargo as a short run response to fuel price increases. This result, however, is not confirmed for the years following the 2008 financial crisis. It also depends on where in the distribution of the average length of haul one looks.

Although the aviation industry is increasingly becoming important for Africa's economic development and integration, the ability of airlines to access foreign markets remains hindered by restrictive regulatory policies. Attempts have been made to fully liberalize the intra-African air transport market. Except for general assertions about the merits/demerits of liberalization, our empirical understanding of the welfare effects of such polices in Africa remains rudimentary. This study empirically measures the economic effects of air transport liberalization, mainly on two supply side variables: fare and service quality, measured as departure frequency. The empirical models evaluate how air fares and departure frequency respond to measures of openness in air services agreements, while controlling for other determinants. The results show up to 40% increase in departure frequency in routes that experienced some type of liberalization compared to those governed by restrictive bilateral air service agreements. Furthermore, there is a relatively larger increase in departure frequency in routes which experienced partial liberalization compared to fully liberalized ones. This can be explained by the diminishing marginal effect of progressive liberalization on departure frequency. While the effect of liberalization is substantial in improving service quality, there is no evidence of its fare reducing effect.

Although the aviation industry is increasingly becoming important for Africa's economic development and integration, the ability of airlines to access foreign markets remains hindered by restrictive regulatory policies. Attempts have been made to fully liberalize the intra-African air transport market. Except for general assertions about the merits/demerits of liberalization, our empirical understanding of the welfare effects of such polices in Africa remains rudimentary. This study empirically measures the economic effects of air transport liberalization, mainly on two supply side variables: fare and service quality, measured as departure frequency. The results show up to 40 % increase in departure frequency in routes that experienced some type of liberalization compared to those governed by restrictive bilateral air service agreements. While the effect of liberalization is substantial in improving service quality, there is no evidence of its fare reducing effect.

This thesis answer the two main questions, firstly, the role of technological development in the production of RE with special reference to investment subsidy in supporting schemes and research and development (R&D). Investment subsidies in supporting schemes and R&D are widely used to promote RE technology and considered economical, efficient instruments than regulation approach. Secondly, the study investigates the relationship between the production of RE and the economic development. Panel data for twelve European Union (EU) countries are analysed for the period 1990 to 2013. The study uses a Cobb Douglas production function to estimate the EU's rational behaviour of investment subsidy between supporting schemes and R&D. For the estimation techniques, the study uses the unit root test, cointegration test, and dynamic pooling average group (PMG) model. The selection of the PMG model is based on the results of diagnostic tests, i.e. cross-sectional dependence, heteroskedasticity, serial correlation, and Hausman. Furthermore, the cointegration test confirms that in the long-run all the variables move together to achieve equilibrium. The PMG model confirms the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable. Thus, it is concluded that the investment subsidies in supporting schemes have a positive and significant effect on the production of renewable energy in the long-run. However, the investment subsidy in research and development also has a positive but insignificant effect on the production of renewable energy in the long-run. Based on the long-run result, thus the study suggests that it is more rational to invest subsidy in supporting schemes than in R&D. In order to find the relationship between the production of RE and economic development, the result of the study confirms that economic development has a positive and significant impact on the production of renewable energy both in the short-and long-run. In addition, the test of the causality confirms the bidirectional relationship between production of RE and economic development. The bidirectional relationship states that both energy and economic growth are associated and complement each other.

The paper studies the relation between valuation and corporate investment level. It provides an insight to the q-model and its implications for investment level. By acknowledge the q-model’s empirical shortcomings it questions whether adjustments for volatility will strengthen the q-model empirically. It argues: as volatility is a proxy for risk, stock market volatility would be related to firm behaviour and investment decisions.

Growth induced export has become a major concern for policy makers to transform and upgrade the export composition to achieve economic growth objectives; in this respect, export diversification become at the heart of growth induced export narrative. Nevertheless, this study attempts to find relationship between export diversification and economic growth. To investigate this relationship, a cross-section method is used with averaged data from the period 1991 to 2009 of 41 sub Saharan Africa countries; moreover, diagnostic tests were conducted to ensure the robustness of the model. The empirical result of this study shows positive correlation between export diversification and economic growth which can be concluded that export diversification promotes economic growth.

University of Gävle, Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, Department of Industrial Development, IT and Land Management, Industrial economics. University of Gävle, Center for Logistics and Innovative Production.

The goal of this research is to demonstrate that the financial performance of the current year in Swedish steel SMEs is dependent on the amount of maturity of supply chain processes. This is examined by considering current supply chain process maturities of the firm together with financial performance of prior years. It was found that the delivery process of supply chain processes and prior cost of goods sold (COGS) have an effect on current COGS. Additionally, prior inventory and plan process of the supply chain have a positive and negative effect on inventory turnover respectively.

Considering that the major part of greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide, there is a global concern aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Additionally, major consumer countries are looking for alternative sources of energy to avoid the impact of higher fossil fuel prices and political instability in the major energy supplying countries. In this regard, different policies could be applied to reduce carbon emissions, such as enhancing renewable energy deployment and encouraging technological innovation and creation of green jobs. There are three main support mechanisms employed by governments to finance renewable energy development programs: feed-in-tariffs, tax incentives, and tradable green certificates. Considering that many of the promising technologies to deploy renewable energy require investment in small-scale energy production systems, these mechanisms could be used to enhance renewable energy development at the desired scale. Employing a carbon emission tax or emission trading mechanism could be considered ideal policies to mitigate emissions at the lowest cost. The comparison of feed-in-tariffs and renewable portfolio standard policies showed that the former is good when a policy to develop renewable energy sources with a low level of risk for investors is considered. However, the latter is an appropriate policy when a marketview policy is applied by the government.

16.

Abolhosseini, Shahrouz

et al.

College of Engineering, TEMEP, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.

Considering that the major part of greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide, there is a global concern aimed at reducing carbon emissions. In addition, major consumer countries are looking for alternative sources of energy to avoid the impact of higher fossil fuel prices and political instability in the major energy supplying countries. In this regard, different policies could be applied to reduce carbon emissions, such as enhancing renewable energy deployment and encouraging technological innovation and the creation of green jobs. This study compares three main support mechanisms employed by governments to finance renewable energy development programs: feed-in-tariffs, tax incentives, and tradable green certificates. Considering that many of the promising technologies to deploy renewable energy require investment in small-scale energy production systems, these mechanisms could be used to enhance renewable energy development at the desired scale. Employing a carbon emission tax or emission trading mechanism could be considered ideal policies to mitigate emissions at the lowest cost. The comparison of feed-in-tariffs and renewable portfolio standard policies showed that the former is good when a policy to develop renewable energy sources with a low level of risk for investors is considered. However, the latter is an appropriate policy when a market view policy is applied by the government. Finally, considering technological progress and the cost reduction for power generation by renewable energy sources, we suggest that support mechanism policies should be reconsidered from the financial point of view. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Energy security as a dominant factor in international stability is of great importance for major economies. The global energy market with its current level of supply and demand relies on energy sources in the Middle East, Caucasus, Central Asia and Russia. After the Fukushima disaster nuclear powers in Europe view renewable energy sources as a serious alternative. Europe’s energy vulnerability has deteriorated due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. However, renewable energy sources are not large enough to replace nuclear power completely. This trend will continue with climbing demand especially in the natural gas sector as clean energy. In this research, Caucasus and Iran are considered the main sources and routes for energy transmission to the global market, including Europe. Caucasus plays a key role in bridging Europe and Asia. Also, Iran is an alternative for energy transmission to Europe after lifted sanctions. As part of the European active supply diversification policy Iran has capacity to reduce Europe’s energy dependency on Russia. However, changes in US new administration America First Policy is harmful for the EUs energy security. Caucasus aims to catch a large share of the European energy market since the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline has started operations and Iran is also trying to expand its market to become a sustainable source of energy for major consumers. Therefore, Iran and Caucasus are considered reliable energy suppliers for Europe. In this regard, we analyze the best motivation for changing the direction new suppliers’ energy policies towards Europe and suggest alternative solutions to compete with rival countries in order to enhance energy security.

An increasing number of people in Sweden and in the rest of the world are becoming more interested in the mutual fund sector. Investments in mutual funds have grown rapidly these past few years. Nilsson (2004) wrote that 85 percent of the Swedish population invested in mutual funds in 2004. The Swedish Investment Fund Association also found an increase in investments in mutual funds; 83 billion Swedish crowns were invested in mutual funds in 2005, an increase from 56 billion in 2004.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate whether or not there is a relationship between low fee, middle fee, and high fee charging Swedish Equity funds and their respective performance (unadjusted and risk-adjusted returns). The Modigliani & Modigliani (1997) risk-adjusted performance measurement was used to calculate the risk-adjusted performance of the 130 mutual funds. And the linear regression was used to analyze whether or not there was a relationship between the variables (management fee vs. returns/risk-adjusted returns). The mutual funds were also divided into three different categories, based on their management fees; low, middle and high fee mutual funds.

The analysis illustrated that there was no clear relationship between the management fee and the returns/risk-adjusted returns. There was some connection found between the management fee and the low, middle fee category. However, this research confirms that investors should not believe that a mutual fund which charges higher fees necessarily generate higher returns.

The question about economic inequality belongs possibly to one of the most controversial questions throughout history. The opinions regarding the pros and cons of economic inequality, but mostly regarding the degree of economic inequality are divided. Initially it was assumed that economic inequality was a precondition for economic growth since it generates investment and is essential for the creation of incentives. New research, however, suggest that growth and economic inequality has a negative relationship, especially when considered in the long run. If so, this is of great importance for economic and political decisions. Moreover, it is considered that a high degree of economic inequality prevents an inclusive political and economic society that could have a setback on the economic growth rate. This paper, taking its starting point in a mixed method, examines the relationship between economic inequality and economic growth.

This paper investigates the sensitivity of Colombian GDP growth to the surrounding macroeconomic environment. We estimate a Bayesian VAR model with informative steady-state priors for the Colombian economy using quarterly data from 1995 to 2007. A variance decomposition shows that world GDP growth and government spending are the most important factors, explaining roughly 17 and 16 per cent of the variance in Colombian GDP growth respectively. The model, which is shown to forecast well out-of-sample, can also be used to analyse alternative scenarios. Generating both endogenous and conditional forecasts, we show that the impact on Colombian GDP growth of a substantial downturn in world GDP growth would be non-negligible but that the decline still would be mild by historical standards.

This paper examines convergence of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by oil combustion for a panel of 86 countries considering the importance of analyzing sub-periods separately. The investigation also points at the necessity of choosing a restricted global sample, which takes into account, for instance, that Eastern Bloc countries reacted differently to increasing world crude oil prices than the rest of the world. The analysis builds on examining the β-convergence hypothesis in a neoclassical growth model setting with additional control variables such as emissions from combustion of solid fuels. The results reveal evidence in support of unconditional β-convergence of CO2 emissions intensity due to oil combustion in the restricted sample for the sub-periods 1973–1979 and 1979–1991, while no evidence for convergence was found for the post-1991, pre-Kyoto period. We could not find support for coal substituting technologies.

There is a rich empirical literature testing whether per capita carbon dioxide emissions tend to converge over time and across countries. This article provides a meta-analysis of the results from this research, and discusses how carbon emissions convergence may be understood in, for instance, the presence of international knowledge spillovers and policy convergence. The results display evidence of either divergence or persistent gaps at the global level, but convergence of per capita carbon dioxide emissions between richer industrialized countries. However, the results appear sensitive to the choice of data sample and choice of convergence concept, e.g. stochastic convergence versus β-convergence. Moreover, peer-reviewed studies have a higher likelihood of reporting convergence in carbon dioxide emissions compared to non-refereed work. POLICY RELEVANCE The empirical basis for an egalitarian rule of equal emissions per capita in the design of global climate agreements is not solid; this supports the need to move beyond single allocation rules, and increase knowledge about the impacts of combined scenarios. However, even in the context of the 2015 Paris Agreement with its emphasis on voluntary contributions and ‘national circumstances’, different equity-based principles could serve as useful points of reference for how the remaining carbon budget should be allocated

There is a rich empirical literature testing whether per capita carbon dioxide emissions tend to converge over time and across countries. This article provides a meta-analysis of the results from this research, and discusses how carbon emissions convergence may be understood in, for instance, the presence of international knowledge spillovers and policy convergence. The results display evidence of either divergence or persistent gaps at the global level, but convergence of per capita carbon dioxide emissions between richer industrialized countries. However, the results appear sensitive to the choice of data sample and choice of convergence concept, e.g. stochastic convergence versus β-convergence. Moreover, peer-reviewed studies have a higher likelihood of reporting convergence in carbon dioxide emissions compared to non-refereed work.

This paper introduces endogenous and directed technical change in a growth model with environmental constraints. A unique final good is produced by combining inputs from two sectors. One of these sectors uses “dirty” machines and thus creates environmental degradation. Research can be directed to improving the technology of machines in either sector. We characterize dynamic tax policies that achieve sustainable growth or maximize intertemporal welfare. We show that: (i) in the case where the inputs are sufficiently substitutable, sustainable long-run growth can be achieved with temporary taxation of dirty innovation and production; (ii) optimal policy involves both “carbon taxes” and research subsidies, so that excessive use of carbon taxes is avoided; (iii) delay in intervention is costly: the sooner and the stronger is the policy response, the shorter is the growth transition phase; (iv) the use of an exhaustible resource in dirty input production helps the switch to clean innovation under laissez-faire when the two inputs are substitutes. Under reasonable parameter values and with sufficient substitutability between inputs, it is optimal to redirect technical change towards clean technologies immediately and optimal environmental regulation need not reduce long-run growth.

This paper introduces endogenous and directed technical change in a growth model with environmental constraints. The final good is produced from dirty and clean inputs. We show that: (i) when inputs are sufficiently substitutable, sustainable growth can be achieved with temporary taxes/subsidies that redirect innovation toward clean inputs; (ii) optimal policy involves both carbon taxes and research subsidies, avoiding excessive use of carbon taxes; (iii) delay in intervention is costly, as it later necessitates a longer transition phase with slow growth; and (iv) use of an exhaustible resource in dirty input production helps the switch to clean innovation under laissez-faire.

We analyze an economy where production is subject to moral hazard. The degree of the incentive (agency) costs introduced by the presence of moral hazard naturally depends on the information structure in the economy; it is cheaper to induce correct incentives in a society which posesses better ex post information. The degree of ex post information depends on the number of projects and entrepreneurs in the economy; the more projects, the better the information. This implies that at the early stages of development, the range of projects and the amount of information are limited and agency costs are high. Since the information created by a project is an externality on others, the decentralized economy is constrained inefficient; in particular, it does not 'experiment' enough. The analysis of the role of information also opens the way to an investigation of the development of financial institutions. We contrast the information aggregation role of stock markets and information production role of banks. Because the amount of available information increases with development, our model predicts the pattern of financial development observed in practice; banks first and stock markets later.

We propose a model in which economic relations and intritutions in advanced and less developed countries differ as these societies have access to different amounts of information. The lack of information in less developed economies makes it hard to evaluate the performance of manager, and leads to high "agency costs". Differences in the amount of information have a variety of sources. As well as factors related to the informational infrastructure, we emphasize that societies accumulate information partly because the scarcity of capital restricts the repetition of various activities. Two implications of our model are: (i) as an economy develops and generates more information, it achieves better risk-sharing at a given level of effort, but because agents are exerting more effort and the types of activities are changing, the overall level of risk-sharing may decline; (ii) with development, the share of financial intermediation carried out through market institutions should increase.

Many technologies used by the LDCs are developed in the OECD economies, and as such, are designed to make optimal use of the skills of these richer countries' workforces. Due to differences in the supply of skills, some of the tasks performed by skilled workers in the OECD economies will be carried out by unskilled workers in the LDCs. Since the technologies in these tasks are designed to be used by skilled workers, productivity in the LDCs will be low. Even when all countries have equal access to new technologies, this mismatch between skills and technology can lead to sizable differences in total factor productivity and output per worker. Our theory also suggests that productivity differences should be highest in medium-tech sectors, and that the trade regime and the degree of intellectual property right enforcement in the LDCs have an important effect on the direction of technical change and on productivity differences.

This paper examines how Sweden and the United States have been impacted by philanthropicactivities, commercialization of university-based knowledge and internationalentrepreneurship. The analysis comprises a detailed case study of Swedish and U.S.universities, as well as a statistical analysis of the impact of philanthropy on economicgrowth. The results show that the United States has prompted a university system based oncompetition and variety, with an emphasis on philanthropy, promoting knowledge creation.International entrepreneurship has been an important mechanism by which this knowledge isglobalized leading to increased economic growth. Conversely, Swedish universities werecharacterized by less commercialized R&D and weak links to the commercial sector, rootedtraditionally in dependence on tax-financed and homogenous university structure. TheSwedish model has begun to change with important implications for development in smallerdomestic markets. The analysis has important implications for knowledge creation as asource of economic growth through international entrepreneurship taking advantage ofglobalization, especially for smaller countries.

Professor Philippe Aghion is the 2016 recipient of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, consisting of 100,000 Euros and a statuette designed by the internationally renowned Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. He is one of the most influential researchers worldwide in economics in the last couple of decades. His research has advanced our understanding of the relationship between firm-level innovation, entry and exit on the one hand, and productivity and growth on the other. Aghion has thus accomplished to bridge theoretical macroeconomic growth models with a more complete and consistent microeconomic setting. He is one of the founding fathers of the pioneering and original contribution referred to as Schumpeterian growth theory. Philippe Aghion has not only contributed with more sophisticated theoretical models, but also provided empirical evidence regarding the importance of entrepreneurial endeavours for societal prosperity, thereby initiating a more nuanced policy discussion concerning the interdependencies between entrepreneurship, competition, wealth and growth.

This paper intends to examine what fraction of house prices can be accredited to the distance between residential properties and proximity to parks, water and city centers. Although a large body of work on the subject of amenities and house prices using a hedonic model already exists, we wish to contribute with an in-depth analysis on these variables of focus. The empirical analysis uses a dataset concerning 8319 single family house purchases in the Swedish municipality of Jönköping, collected during the years 2000 to 2011. The main findings show that house prices are negatively effected as the distance increases to amenities and that by testing for land value as the dependent variable, we highlight the importance of geographical location while ignoring charac-teristics surrounding the house.

The recent financial crisis and other climate related shocks pose important challenges to fiscal policies in a number of developing countries. The best way for developing countries to respond to the tax challenges are essentially to broaden tax bases, reduce rates and improve tax administration. But equally important, the focus has also to be on economic policies that accelerate growth and expand the tax base. In many developing countries, poor public service delivery, financed with existing revenue, creates dissatisfied citizens which are unwilling to pay taxes. A legitimate and responsive state one that secures the rule of law and keeps corruption under control is important for better mobilisation of tax revenue. With regard to the mix of tax instruments trade taxes will continue to reduce its significance as an important source of revenue. This suggests that indirect taxes such as VAT and direct taxes will be of significant importance in the future. Many developing countries have very narrow tax bases, with large number of exemptions, often designed to protect the interests of powerful groups. In these circumstances broadening the base can have the advantages of raising revenue, improving economic efficiency and achieving greater redistribution. Over the long-term taxation can reduce developing countries’ dependence upon aid and increase its ownership of the development agenda and become accountable to its citizens. This would also reinforce the social contract between state, citizens and the private sector which was how efficient institutions evolved in the developed world.

Do district incumbents in an election have an advantage, and if so, do these advantages depend on which party is in government? We estimate the incumbency effect for the direct district candidates in German federal and state elections using a regression discontinuity design (RDD). When studying the heterogeneity in these effects, we find that incumbents from both large parties, the center-right CDU and the center-left SPD, have an advantage only if the SPD is in government. This effect is robust and shows even in state elections that are unrelated to federal elections.

Essay 1: If grandparents have an independent impact on their grandchildren's schooling, intergenerational correlations estimated using two generations will underestimate the true level of intergenerational persistence in education. Recent research has found such multi-generational effects, but there is still no consensus on whether these estimates are due to a direct impact of grandparents on their grandchildren, or if they arise because of measurement error or model misspecification. In this paper, I estimate the intergenerational transmission arising from direct interactions with grandparents by comparing families where the grandparent died before the birth of the grandchild with those where the grandparent lived to meet and spend time with the grandchild. I find that direct effects contribute most, if not all, of the transmission coefficient across three generations.

Essay 2: Sibling correlations in education and income have been extensively studied in the literature, and attempts to look inside the correlation have focused on family and neighborhood effects. In this paper I estimate sibling spillovers in education—that is, the effect of an older sibling's schooling on their younger sibling's schooling. To estimate causal effects, I use a compulsory school reform in Sweden in the 1950s to instrument for the older sibling's schooling. I am unable to detect statistically significant sibling spillovers, implying that any such spillovers must be relatively small.

Essay 3: (with Che-Yuan Liang) The implementation of a copyright protection reform in Sweden in April 2009 suddenly increased the risk of being caught and prosecuted for illegal file sharing. This paper uses the reform to investigate the effects of illegal file sharing on music and movie sales. We find that the reform decreased Internet traffic by 16 percent during the subsequent six months. It also increased music sales by 36 percent. Furthermore, it had no significant effects on movie sales. We conclude that pirated music is a strong substitute to legal music whereas the substitutability is less for movies.

Essay 4: (with Magnus Gustavsson) This paper shows that between 1975 and 2005, Sweden exhibited a pattern of job polarization with expansions of the highest and lowest paid jobs compared to middle-wage jobs. The most popular explanation for such a pattern is the hypothesis of "task-biased technological change", where technological progress reduces the demand for routine middle-wage jobs but increases the demand for non-routine jobs located at the tails of the job-wage distribution. Our estimates, however, do not endorse this explanation for the 1970s and 1980s. Stronger evidence for task biased technological change, albeit not conclusive, is found for the 1990s and 2000s. In particular, there is both a statistically and economically significant growth of non-routine jobs and a decline of routine jobs. No link between wage changes and routine tasks, as would be expected from task-biased technological change, can however be established.

42.

Adermon, Adrian

Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Economics.

This paper shows that between 1975 and 2005, Sweden exhibited a pattern of job polarization with expansions of the highest and lowest paid jobs compared to middle-wage jobs. The most popular explanation for such a pattern is the hypothesis of ‘task-biased technological change’, where technological progress reduces the demand for routine middle-wage jobs but increases the demand for non-routine jobs located at the tails of the job-wage distribution. Our estimates, however, do not support this explanation for the 1970s and 1980s. Stronger evidence for task biased technological change, albeit not conclusive, is found for the 1990s and 2000s. In particular, there is both a statistically and economically significant growth of non-routine jobs and a decline of routine jobs. Results for wages are, however, mixed; while task-biased technological change cannot explain changes in between-occupation wage differentials, it does have considerable explanatory power for changes in within-occupation wage differentials.

This paper investigates the connection between the Swedish wage profile of net job creation and Autor, Levy, and Murnane’s (2003) proposed substitutability between routine tasks and technology. We first show that between 1975 and 2005, Sweden exhibited a pattern of job polarization with expansions of the highest and lowest paid jobs compared to middle-wage jobs. We then use cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of job-specific employment to map out the importance of routine versus nonroutine tasks for these changes. Results are consistent with substitutability between routine tasks and technology as an important explanation for the observed job polarization during the 1990s and 2000s, but not during the 1970s and 1980s. In particular, the overrepresentation of routine tasks in middle-wage jobs can potentially explain 44 percent of the growth of low-wage jobs relative to middle-wage jobs after 1990 but largely lacks explanatory power in earlier years.

The implementation of a copyright protection reform in Sweden in April 2009 suddenly increased the risk of being caught and punished for illegal file sharing. This paper investigates the impact of the reform on illegal file sharing and music sales using a difference-in-differences approach with Norway and Finland as control groups. We find that the reform decreased Internet traffic by 16% and increased music sales by 36% during the first six months. Pirated music therefore seems to be a strong substitute to legal music. However, the reform effects disappeared almost completely after six months, likely because of the weak enforcement of the law.

This paper investigates the effects of illegal file sharing (piracy) on music and movie sales. The Swedish implementation of the European Union directive IPRED on April 1, 2009 suddenly increased the risk of being caught and prosecuted for file sharing. We investigate the subsequent drop in piracy as approximated by the drop in Swedish Internet traffic and the effects on music and movie sales in Sweden. We find that the reform decreased Internet traffic by 18 percent during the subsequent six months. It also increased sales of physical music by 27 percent and digital music by 48 percent. Furthermore, it had no significant effects on the sales of theater tickets or DVD movies. The results indicate that pirated music is a strong substitute for legal music whereas the substitutability is less for movies.

The paper examines the contribution of foreign direct investment to economic growth in Africa using graphical and regression analysis. Data for the entire continent and data for eleven countries within the continent were used for the empirical analysis. The time series data is from 1970-2003. It was discovered that the contribution of FDI to growth is estimated to be positive in most of the countries but not significant.

Responsible mining requires a company to engage with local communities throughout all stages of their operations, from exploration phases through to post mining planning. Assessment of current and potential future social impacts allows a company to maximize the positive impacts they can have on a community, whilst minimizing negative social impacts from mining. Initiating and upholding effective stakeholder relations are key to a company`s ability to obtain and maintain their "social license" to operate. The level of interaction between mining companies and stakeholders, including local communities, varies substantially between and within countries. As part of the EU funded Framework 7 "ImpactMin" Project (Impact Monitoring of Mineral Resources Exploitation), we have examined the level of community engagement in mining and related processing industries at sites across Europe, including Romania (Rosia Montana), Sweden (Kristineberg), the UK (Cornwall), Bosnia Herzegovina (Vihovici) and Russia (Karabash, Gay and Mednogorsk). These sites reflect different stages in mining and therefore reveal a diverse range of issues and differing levels of community engagement. Our aim has been to focus not only on how practice varies, but also to try to explain the complex reasons behind the relationships that exist between mining companies and different stakeholders. Findings of questionnaires undertaken across the sites (between June - October 2010), and results of interviews and focus groups of different people linked to the mining industry, will also be discussed. The expectations that "mining" communities have of their local mining company vary substantially, directly relating to what the community believes the mine company owes them. These examples highlight that the notion of corporate social responsibility in the mining sector in Europe and Russia is fluid and changes according to the differing expectations and goals of stakeholders. We will present highlights of initial results. For example, Rosia Montana Gold Corporation, in Romania, is trying to reopen closed state gold mines. They have seen international media attention relating to campaigns by NGOs to oppose the mines reopening. Our results will help reveal what samples of different stakeholder groups really think of the mines reopening. This example contrasts distinctly with a mine in Kristineberg, Sweden, where Kristineberg village was built alongside the mine. There are now distinct issues felt within the community due to the decline in the number of people employed at the mine.

Fluctuation of exchange rate has affected the increasing burden of foreign debt payment in emerging economies. This issue has negatively influenced the economic growth. It has been a severe obstacle considering that governments have to issue public debt denominated in foreign currency to finance the budget deficit. Hence, there is an urgent necessity to implement an efficient public debt management to minimize the exchange rate exposure. This thesis analyses how efficient the foreign debt portfolio management is in the 14 emerging economies under examination in the period of 1990-2013. Panel Dynamic Fixed-effect Estimator and Granger Causality approach are applied to analyze how responsive the currency composition of foreign debt portfolio to the exchange rates movement. The thesis examines the four biggest foreign debt shares that are denominated in US dollar, Euro, British pound, and Japanese yen, and the related exchange rates movement in the economies under consideration. The observation concludes that the foreign debt portfolio management in these emerging economies is not efficient or not optimal. The evidences prove that changes in the exchange rates of Euro, British pound, and Japanese yen relative to US dollar Granger cause changes in respected debt shares. It means that there is no substitution effects from the appreciation of the currencies vis-à-vis the US dollar during the year of observation.

The gambling regulation in Sweden is a controversial topic. The thesis compares the Swedish gambling regulation with current regulation in Britain and Denmark. Cost-benefit analysis is used to analyze the various differences between the regulations. Primarily information is used from surveys, interviews and legal texts to explain the existing problems related to the gambling market. This thesis compares the conditions in the different countries and differences in various gambling types. The thesis also sets out the conditions for the private companies and differences in socio-economic benefits. The conclusion is that the present regulation is not as economically efficient as the comparison countries’ gambling regulations.